The manufacturing of shaped food products, in particular confectionery products, generally comprises a step of depositing into a mold, in order to set the desired shape to the product. The method includes a step of injecting a metered amount of food mass with a piston through a nozzle into a mold. Then, cooling or drying of the deposited mass is carried out until setting the final product is properly achieved.
Various patent documents illustrate the depositing technology for confectionery. For instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,004,716 and 4,089,438 both relate to a depositor of confectionery material into molds. Other prior art documents can be cited as references related to a similar technical field, such as U.S. Pat. No. 2,837,041, British patent application 2,026,378, and French patent application 1,132,821.
However, the above-discussed depositing process, as traditionally applied, particularly for confectionery of high viscosity, suffers from serious drawbacks that have until now remained unresolved. One of the main disadvantages relates to the difficulty in separating a deposited portion of a material from the material remaining in the depositing nozzle. The material tends to stretch out in a long tail that does not easily break under its own weight and gravity. This phenomenon is known as "tailing." A defect such as this may consequently affect the accuracy of dosing, weight, and/or shape of a final molded product. After depositing, the resulting formation of many strings formed across the molds is not hygienic and thus needs to be removed. Tailing is also aesthetically unpleasing and can cause major quality control inconsistencies. Defects such as these may lead to difficulties in wrapping the product. For instance, when caramel is deposited in a shell-molded chocolate product, the tail may cause a channel through the chocolate cover, which may stick to the packaging. Tailing may also clog the nozzle or block moving parts of the depositing device.
Past attempts to reduce tailing have consisted of physically cutting the tail. For instance, British patent application 2,026,378 proposes to discharge a pulse of steam or compressed air through the nozzle at the time of the separation of the confectionery mass. These solutions have proven to be ineffective, are complicated, or can be costly to implement.
The present invention can overcome the problems associated with the formation of a tail in a mold depositing process of a food mass, in particular, confectionery products, and may alleviate the need for additional mechanical or gas pulsing devices. As a consequence, the present invention allows formation of a regular flat surface on top of the deposit, which has proven to be beneficial for the weight control, final look, and mouthfeel of the product, as well as for ease of wrapping.